Comments on: “RSS in Plain English” – fun and informative short video

By: clay burell

clay burell — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 02:21:39 +0000

Great, quick intro. My only constructive suggestion is that subscriptions to del.icio.us tag searches be included to cover that other web-category: static web pages that offer no RSS subscriptions.

By: Peter Rock

Peter Rock — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 15:25:44 +0000

I don’t know about Mac, sorry. I have used “Istanbul” for Gnome on GNU/Linux to record desktop sessions but I don’t think it’s yet a cross-platform tool as it’s relatively new. And yes, we need a YouTube-like site to embed .ogg files. At the very least, I believe there are tools to convert videos to OGG which can then be hosted on a file server somewhere.

*sigh*

We have a long way to go. And in the world of proprietary formats/software the news just gets worse. Can’t force ads unless you control the user. Can’t control the user if they don’t use proprietary software.

By: Peter Rock

Peter Rock — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 07:53:46 +0000

Oh wait! The author has responded to my plea and noted that the video is also available on Youtube. As of April, 2007, Youtube videos can be extracted (by various means) and played using VLC version 0.8.5 or greater.

Here’s the link…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 07:27:55 +0000

Peter, I published my Blip.TV vid in .mov format — and their service allows me to publish direct links to those files. What’s the best format for people with your, um, determined sense of fun to watch online video without proprietary packages — what tends to work most reliably?

I’d email you this (and will if I don’t hear from you) — but if you happen to reply the answer will be here for someone who happens to stumble by. I could also do ten seconds of Googling, but prefer to hear from a seasoned user.

By: Peter Rock

Peter Rock — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 07:22:00 +0000

I’ve got one machine running Ubuntu with all proprietary packages stripped from it and another running gNewSense.

Somehow I’ll find a way to watch it (in freedom) eventually. That’s part of the fun. Yeah, I know…kinda geeky. But fun.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 21:45:10 +0000

I noticed Stephen Downes said he had to install Flash 9 to watch this on Ubuntu. I’m sorry this isn’t working for you, whatever it is you’re running.

By: Peter Rock

Peter Rock — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:15:44 +0000

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to play the video (sound only) using any of the free tools on my system. So I haven’t actually seen the video yet but it sounds interesting. I left a comment on the author’s blog. Hopefully a freely formatted version of the file will get distributed.

By: Alan

Alan — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 02:13:53 +0000

Do you think this RSS thing will really take off? It sounds like vaporware to me

Lee deserves a Blog Pulitzer for his well written explanations, still the Wiki for a Camping Trip is a constant recommnedation I make

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 23:54:42 +0000

Yeah Mike, I think this will be useful for those of us trying to work with the uninitiated.

By: Mike Bogle

Mike Bogle — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:35:53 +0000

That is a fantastic video with a great non-techie introduction and overview. I shall disseminate it post-haste, because the recent restructuring of our department has merged the IT-savy with the very not IT-savy (who are very wary of techno-speak).

Thanks Brian!